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Friday, June 17, 2011

There is no doubt that the New York
Rangers being unable to buy out Chris Drury from the final season of his
contract complicates what the team will do this summer. The rising NHL salary cap, and allowance to
be 10% over whatever the final cap number is will certainly help the Rangers to
some extent. The reason the help will
not be significantly large is because Wade Redden’s contract will be back on
the book and soak up the allowed overage.

Having to carry the full $7.05 million
of Drury’s contract is certainly painful this summer, but those who are looking
at the full amount have to remember they were going to have to carry $3.716
next season anyway. The real difference
between what the Rangers will now have to spend this summer and what they would
have had if the Drury buy out had been possible is $3.33 million.

While buying out Wojtek Wolski appears
to be the popular response, other than Drury retiring, to the Drury news this
morning, Jesse Spector of the New
York Daily News floats another potential move the Rangers could make.

With the players they currently have on their roster,
including Wade Redden, the Rangers should be a little over $55 million on the
summer cap once they make qualifying offers to their restricted free agents.
With the 2011-12 cap expected to be between $60-63 million, and the summer cap
10% higher than that, the Rangers would have room to operate.

The complication in that scenario would be that if the Rangers were to make a
big-money acquisition (read: Brad Richards), they would be hamstrung with
regard to actually re-signing their restricted free agents. Brandon Dubinsky,
for instance, is not going to sign a contract for his qualifying offer of $2
million – getting a deal done might have to wait until the Rangers can get
Drury to long-term injured reserve, and Redden back off the cap in the AHL (or
with some other solution). Other teams might be able to force the Rangers into
a difficult spot by signing their restricted free agents to offer sheets, but
that practice has become quite uncommon in the NHL.

As Jesse points out, the team
is required to carry their qualifying offers against the summer cap. The total of the qualifying offers per Cap Geek for
Callahan, Dubinsky, Boyle, Anisimov and Sauer the total is $6.36 million. Any of those players who signs a contract for
next season has the full amount of their deal added to the cap for next season,
but until they do only the qualifying offer counts. Attempting to wait until they can move Redden
to the AHL at the start of training camp is a dangerous move because of offer
sheet possibilities, but still an option to be considered.

Also, combining the thought of waiting
on signing a restricted free agent and the potential of triggering a second buy
out window by taking any of the restricted free agents to arbitration would
give the Rangers more time to decide on buying out Wolski if it is the final
option.

The move to buy out Wolski is the most
commonly thought of right now because of the large cap savings and his somewhat
disappointing play in New York. There
are other options to think about though and if they do have to buy him out it
creates another spot on the roster that has to be filled by a contract. The whole conversation would obviously be moot
if Drury retired and saved the Rangers the full $7.05 million and/or the
Rangers do not sign Brad Richards.

According to Jesse Spector of the New York Daily
News, the New York Rangers have re-signed forward Chad Kolarik.Kolarik, 25, was acquired from Columbus for
Dane Byers on November 11, 2010.Kolarik
was very effective for the Whale, scoring 17 goals and adding 14 assists in his
36 games there.

Kolarik had a brief four game stint with the Rangers in January and showed himself well as a third line type player. In those four games he had one assist, but what you noticed most about him was his willingness to go to the front of the net and how the puck seemed to have a way of finding him. Keeping him is a good move for both the Whale, as they need veteran scoring, and the Rangers if there are injuries at the NHL level.

For those who got all excited about the various reports last
week that Chris Drury was going to be bought out by the Rangers, today comes
cold water on the whole thing. Larry
Brooks at the New
York Post reports the Rangers cannot buy out the final season of Drury’s
contract because of a degenerative condition in his left knee that could render
him medically unable to play next season.

It was this condition that caused his knee to be in such bad
shape this season and miss virtually the entire second half before returning in
the regular season finale and playoffs.

While Drury has yet to file the
necessary paperwork, sources report he plans to do so. The Rangers, who had
been planning a buyout, could file a grievance against Drury, but that is a
remote possibility, at best.

The option now is to put
Drury on Long-Term Injured Reserve, but that does not make the cap issues easy
as Brooks points out.

But in order to gain the full value of
the $7.05 million exemption, the Rangers would have to go that far over the
cap. In other words, if the cap is $62.5 million (an estimation before it is
officially established by June 30), the team would have to get to $69.5 million
(including Drury) before the season-opener in Stockholm to reap the full LTI
benefit.

If Drury is going to be medically unable to play next season it is
likely that his career is over in the NHL and would potentially set the stage for him to have one last act of leadership in retiring to leave the Rangers in a better position for next season.